Vysokoye History
town shield
This Shield for the town has apparently been used since the
16th Century.
Bibliography

Yizkor Book
A 1948 event program titled Entertainment and Ball Given by the United Wisoko-Litowsker and Woltchiner Relief is subtitled Yizkor.As a result, this minor publication has become known as the Yizkor Book for Wysokie -- and for Woltchin, also known as Volchin. The publication contains disappointingly little documentary information about either town. Only a few copies are known to exist. An English translation may be viewed here. This article by a survivor, David Wolf, Two Letters from the Other World, summarizes the Holocaust in Wysokie.

Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities -- Poland -- Volume V -- Volhynia and Polesie
Article about Wysokie Litewskie, pages 249-250. In Hebrew. Pinkas hakehillot Polin: entsiklopedyah shel ha-yishuvim ha-Yehudiyim le-min hivasdam ve-`ad le-ahar Sho'at Milhemet ha-`olam ha-sheniyah. 1990, Jerusalem, Yad Vashem.
Material apparently from this article:

--The Jews were merchants, artisans, and shopkeepers; they produced brandy, beer, had three water mills for grinding flour and were horse and cattle dealers.

--The shtetl was famous in the first half of the 19th century for its yearly fair in the month of July that lasted for two weeks.

--In 1886, the town opened an elementary Russian Jewish school with 50 pupils. There was also a talmed teyre, a kheyder and a Jewish hospital.

--The old synagogue was built of brick in 1607 and the building was refurbished in 1827.

-- In 1626 the Lithuanian Jewish Committee owned Vysoke de Lita.

--There was a debt owed by the Jewish committee to the Lita state, amounting to 1460 Lithuanian groshes (coins) which equaled 24 Lithuanian shok. [Editor's note: In 1626 this was a rather substantial sum. It has been said that one silver Lithuanian groshes was about 1.8 grams of a purity of 325 or each coin being about 2.628 grams of silver. Valued at the 2006 rate, each coin would be worth about USD 2.95 or for the total of 1460 coins at USD 4,307].

--In 1644, during the feast of Sukkot (October 22nd thru October 25th), hoodlums broke into the Synagogue, hit some of the worshipers and threatened to murder all of the Jews of this Shtetl, three (3) of the members were serverely injured. The intruders also robbed a silver Atara(crown) from a Torah scroll and some women's jewelry. This information is from the Encyclopedia of Jewish Villages, published by Yad Vashem, 1990, Volume 5, pages 249 - 250.

--A second synagogue was built of brick in 1657 and this building was refurbished in 1850.

--The shtetl was privately owned and from the beginning of the 18th century belonged to the princely family of Sapega, who built a castle, a hospital, and a church built there. [Editor's note: Lew Sapega (1557 - 1633) held the post of chancellor of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Leo Sapeha was the very person who took a highly important place in the history of Belarus as the author of Statute of Grand Duchy of Lithuania providing actually one of the first constitutions of the world.]

--In 1702 the Jewish congregation sent a sum of 358 Golden groshen as Kingdom taxes.

--In 1705 the Jewish congregation paid 700 Zehuvim as Kingdom taxes.

--When Wysokie became part of Poland in 1919 the Polish authorities opened a school whose language of instruction was Yiddish but in 1929 the construction of that school building remained unfinished for lack of funds so the school was required to move to the orphanage.

-- Because of the Shtetl's proximity to the Polish border, the Germans entered the Shtetl on June 22nd, 1941 [Editor's note: Other reports indicate the date as June 23rd, 1941], and immediately established a closed ghetto for the Jews. At this date in time the Jewish people made up 80% to 90% of the population of the town, to which the Germans added the Jews they brought over from other Shtetls like Kamenets Litovsk, and nearby hamlets like Rasno (at a distance of 3 km from W-L).

--Wysokie was occupied by the German Army on June 23, 1941 and returned to Russian control on July 28, 1944, a total of 37 months.

--The Germans liquidated the ghetto on November 2nd 1942 [Editor's note: This date is in conflict, because we are also told that the liquidation occurred on November 11, 1941]. It is said that some young people ran away to the woods, but we all know that none of them survived. The majority of the non-Jewish population of the shtetl did survive the war.

--The population of the Wysokie:

Year Total Population Jewish Population Percentage
1847 ? 1,475 ?
1868 1,325 825 62.3%
1895 4,105 ? ?
1897 3,434 2,876 83.3%
1921 2,395 1,994


Some Historical Wysokers
From an unknown source: a Mordko Bushmich was reported as an Assistant District Rabbi and that his term had expired on January 15, 1883.

A search of this JewishGen database of Jewish Religious Personnel in the Russian Empire, 1853-1854, using the search term Vysoko produced 3 names:

KASIR, Abram

KURATINSKII, Velko

LEV, Naftal

all listed as personnel from Vysoko-Litovsk in Grodno Guberniya.

On August 16, 2005 Phil Freidenreich asked if anyone knew if his great grandfather, Rabbi Yakov Meir HaCohen (a Wysoker?), was the rabbi of Wysokie-Litovsk in the late 1800's.

palace
Chapel dating from the 18th century. Monument of Baroque-style architecture.



Page Last Updated: 02-Feb-2010